Lessons from a reimagined winter fairy tale
When you’re a child, this time of year is full of magic and wonder. As you get older, the holidays…
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A class act: HART celebrates milestone, looks ahead
It’s Sunday afternoon. And while many are either watching professional football on a glowing TV somewhere or simply trying to…
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From book monsters to nuclear war
For all sorts of reasons, mostly having to do with research, the last two weeks brought more reading than usual…
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Heart of the arts
You sure as heck can pack a lot into 365 days, especially when it comes to the immensely vibrant arts…
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Real perspectives from a fictional Russian
The ever growing stack of my “to-read” books has had Amor Towles’ “A Gentleman in Moscow” for about a year…
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A year in review: The best albums of 2024
Editor’s Note: Since August 2012, Garret K. Woodward has held the position of arts and entertainment editor for The Smoky…
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Blow the tannery whistle: Foxfire Christmas: traditions and superstitions
Back in the 1980s, when I was telling stories in the Cope Crest Conference Center in Tiger, Georgia, I heard…
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Desperate times, desperate measures
It’s spring of 1941 and Britain stands alone against Hitler’s Germany. The British aircraft dropping their bombs on German military…
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Here’s to inspiration?
“What are you reading after the election?” a friend asked me last week. She asked me because she had picked…
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Heart is the hero: A conversation with Oliver Wood
Since its formation in 2004, The Wood Brothers have become one of the premier, marquee acts in the vast sonic…
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Blow the tannery whistle: A tale of two Abrahams
I remember a day in March when I was in the seventh grade. We were on the second floor of the…
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Get in the holiday spirit
• “The Merry Buccaneers Holiday Heist” stage production will be held at 6 p.m. Nov. 22-23 at the Swain Arts…
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The Parton sisters’ cookbook
About 10 years ago, Dolly Parton became one of my heroines. It wasn’t her music, or her movies, or her…
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Mountain power: Hundreds of artists come together for 'Caverns of Gold' album
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, there has been numerous initiatives put forth by local Western North Carolina musicians to…
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‘Rock for Relief’ raises over $32K
The recent “Rock for Relief: A WNC Flood Benefit Festival” was able to garner more than $32,000 in its one-day…
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An inside look at life in a Christian convent
If you ever wondered what it would be like to live as a monk or a nun, this book delves…
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Being kind: A conversation with Larry Keel
When it comes to bluegrass guitar pickin’-n-grinnin’ — hell, acoustic guitar playing, in general — one name high atop the…
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Of war and peace: novels for Veterans Day
According to surveys and government data cited in the online article “The Changing Face of America’s Veteran Population,” 40 years…
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Coming together: 'Rock for Relief' rolls through WNC
When record-breaking floodwaters tore through Western North Carolina last month in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, it was only a…
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A book of peace in hard times
Given the harrowing natural disasters in the South, I thought a good book to review this month would be one…
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Interested in learning to write?
Award-winning poet Cecilia Woloch will offer a workshop for local writers, “Our Lives Which Can Never Run Dry: Workshop for…
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All-star music compilation to benefit flood victims
With the recent floods ravaging Western North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene, there’s been countless avenues by which artists and…
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The forgotten victims of violent death
Approximately 20,000 murders occurred in the United States in 2023. These killings ranged in scope from gang battles to domestic…
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'A shelf on which to rest': Writing through trauma
As the life-threatening emergency faced in the wake Hurricane Helene ebbs in Haywood County and the reality of the long…
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Giving the present to the future
No book review today. Instead, some words about the importance of words — yours. If you’re reading these words and…
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Bryson City community jam
A community jam will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, at the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.…
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A proclamation about women as artists
As I peruse the shelves in the Jackson County Library’s “new releases” section, it is evident to me that there…
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Planting the seeds of tomorrow: A community comes together post-Helene
On Friday evening, downtown Waynesville was in kind of a festive spirit — a far cry from what all of…
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Mountain Heritage Day celebrates 50 years
A beloved long-time Western North Carolina tradition, Mountain Heritage Day will spotlight its 50th anniversary from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.…
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A thoughtful farewell to summer
The change of season, especially to autumn, is always a welcome and refreshing time for me. Traveling diminishes, darkness encroaches…
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Debut novel deals with opioid crisis
Rick Childers will share his debut novel, “Turkeyfoot,” in conversation with Meagan Lucas at 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, at…
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A blank canvas: The world of paint and sip
On a sunny morning, I met Robin Arramae at Panacea Coffee House in the Frog Level District of Waynesville. We…
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Teaching manners and other life skills
Recently I had the opportunity to speak by phone with writer and podcaster Jennifer L. Scott. The author of the…
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It's Only Fear That Makes You Run: A conversation with Melissa Etheridge
If there’s one word to describe singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge, it would be persistent. From humble and hardscrabble beginnings as a…
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A new take on an old issue
Glass half-full or glass half-empty? For the past 20 years, we’ve heard from academics, some politicians and various commentators that…
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Smokies Life publishes George Masa biography
Smokies Life has announced the publication of “George Masa: A Life Reimagined,” the first comprehensively researched biography of the visionary…
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Shine your light: Patton Magee of The Nude Party
It’s a hot, early evening at FloydFest, the storied independently-run music festival held each July in the backwoods of rural…
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Living off the grid for 40 years
In a book written in a first-person, vulnerable and intimately entertaining narrative oral storytelling voice, Ken Smith takes us through…
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In this book, old-time means good time
Over 30 years ago, I read Helen Hooven Santmyer’s “And Ladies of the Club,” a doorstopper of a book chronicling…
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Spread it heavy: WNC rockers Porch 40 return
It was a special time and place when rock-n-funk act Porch 40 emerged onto the vast, vibrant Western North Carolina…
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A scary, page-turner of a story
Sometimes life seems too short to read every novel and author on your list. Oftentimes, I tend towards classics and…
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‘An Imaginative Proclivity’: Gary Carden and “Stories I Lived to Tell”
In “Stories I Lived to Tell: An Appalachian Memoir” (The University of North Carolina Press, 2024, 152 pages), 89-year-old storyteller…
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Jokes, laughter, happiness and good health
As part of my gifts for Father’s Day this year, my daughter bought me a book. She apologized before handing…
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Love you madly: A retrospective on rock rebels Cake
In the vast annals of American rock music, alternative rock act Cake remains a beacon of eccentricity — this sonic…
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‘The Anxious Generation’ — Part 2
Editor’s note: This first part of this review was published in the July 24 edition of The Smoky Mountain News…
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The ‘Anxious Generation’ – Part 1
A month ago I called my brother-in-law, known to all the family as Uncle Jim, to ask a favor. He readily…
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Carry this together: Zoe and Cloyd
With their latest album, “Songs of Our Grandfathers,” rising Asheville Americana/folk duo Zoe & Cloyd decided to take a different…
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A bird’s eye view of feathered friends
In a remarkable book that combines eco-poetry, poetic prose and personal and scientific information by award-winning African-American ornithologist and professor…
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Blurring the Lines: A conversation with Liam Purcell
Straddling the line between neo-traditional and progressive bluegrass, Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road are a fiercely ambitious and purposely…
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Dealing with loss, grief, and the balm of love
On the first Saturday of June, my friend John and I were just leaving McKay Used Books in Manassas, Virginia,…
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